Prior to L.A.’s win against Houston, Luke Walton approached head coach Phil Jackson with an idea: why not see if L.A.’s flow worked better with Trevor Ariza starting and Walton coming off the bench?

Jackson concurred, and both players were effective in L.A.’s 102-96 win. Ariza scored eight points with six boards, three assists and two steals in 29 minutes, while Walton logged eight points alongside five boards and two assists in 23 minutes.

Jackson said the team would stick with that lineup for the foreseeable future.

Props to Luke for giving up his starting position for the good of the team.

Yes. A lot of people bash Luke for his basketball skills ( which I think are not so bad ), but the fact is that he's a great teammate and has high basketball IQ, not only on the court but outside it too. He understands what's good for the team. Perfect example of "Team > Player" way of thinking

Wow Luke has you all fooled! He's a team player? He's the complete opposite. He now got exactly what he wanted: a lesser role. He got his money, and now he wants to take it a little easier, and is doing it very methodically. Next thing you know, he'll be going up to coach Jackson and telling him, "hey coach, I think it's better for the team if Morrison came off the bench instead of me. Just put me on the inactive list", thus freeing him of any responsibility!